The most difficult choice in life. He made attempts for nine years and received dozens of rejections. Is it worth it to take such a risk? Looking for better opportunities

Giacomo Raffaelli discovered his passion for drawing already when he was a
kid playing in the streets of the Trastavere district in Rome. His
father died in 1765, when Giacomo was only 12 years old, leaving him no
other choice than to take a job at his uncle's quarry.

Looking for better opportunities

Work at the quarry was all-consuming and Giacomo had no time to devote
to drawing, but he found an opportunity to get closer to art when he was
15 years old.

One afternoon, while Giacomo's uncle was away, a priest walked into the
quarry and requested a quotation for coloured stones to repair medieval
mosaics at Santa Cecilia Church. Giacomo made a quick calculation,
offered a good price, and received the commission. As of that day, he
began to learn everything he could about mosaics.

It did not take Giacomo long to start a business of his own by offering his
services to churches to repair old mosaics or to lay new ones. The
drawing abilities required by mosaics were modest, since
most scenes consisted of geometrical decorations, flowers, and animals.

Year after year, Giacomo longed to land a commission for a large mosaic
that would let him display his artistic talent, but that was not to be.
At night, he would spend hours by the fire making drawings for grandiose
mosaics, but the costs of European wars had dried out the funding for new
projects.

The mosaics business slowed down during the French invasion of Italy and
Giacomo took to spending whole days at home making drawings for his
future masterpiece. With the drawings in hand, hemade a tour of
churches and monasteries, trying to obtain a commission for his project,
a twenty-meter long mosaic representing the Garden of Eden.He made attempts for nine years and received dozens of rejections

Giacomo made attempts for nine years and collected 82 rejections from places
as far away as Ravenna and Aix-en-Provence. Only in December 1809, the
Church of San Giovanni Laterano showed interest in a scaled-down version
of the Garden of Eden project.

The price offered by the San Giovanni Church was so low that made it
almost impossible for Giacomo to break even, let alone make a profit,
precisely at a time when he needed money, since he had recently
married Simonetta Cappella, a petite 32 year-old Venetian widow.

Is it worth it to take such a risk?

Still, the commission from the San Giovanni Church would give
Giacomo a unique opportunity to make a name for himself and gain
recognition as an artist. Giacomo was then close to his 57th birthday.
Was it worth it for him to take such a risk? Should he not rather
concentrate on his profitable mosaic-repair business?

A visit from a captain of the Imperial Dragons in January 1810 took
Giacomo by surprise. "Emperor Napoleon is in Rome and wants to discuss a
commission with you," announced the captain.

Excited by the prospect of a major commission, Giacomo collected his
drawings of the Garden of Eden and followed the captain to a villa in
the Pallatino.

Emperor Napoleon greeted Giacomo warmly and, by means of an interpreter,
explained that he had seen himself the high quality of Giacomo's work
and that he was planning to grant Giacomo a commission for a large
mosaic at the Minoriten Church in Vienna.

"I will be marrying the Duchess of Parma this summer," went on Napoleon.
"The mosaic will be my wedding present." Giacomo thentried to show his
Garden of Eden drawings, but the Emperor shook his head. "The Duchess
has already chosen a design for the mosaic. She wants to have a copy of
Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper. Can you do that?"

Napoleon's request made Giacomo's heart stand still for a second. The
Emperor was offering him a commission to make a copy of an old painting!
To copy another artist's work! When Napoleon mentioned the price of the
commission, Giacomo asked the interpreter to repeat it. It was a real
fortune, more money than Giacomo had ever made in all his life.

The Emperor had not expected to see Giacomo hesitate. What was that man
thinking? Any other artisan in the French Empire would have immediately
accepted such a generous commission. "I need a day to think it over,"
replied Giacomo after taking a deep breath. "I have to consult my wife."

The most difficult choice in life

Giacomo returned home, only to find a priest from the San Giovanni
Church waiting for him. "Cardinal Mazzelli wants to know if you accept
the commission for the Garden of Eden mosaic," inquired the priest.
"Otherwise, the money will be used to make repairs in the apse."

That night, Giacomo had a long discussion with Simonetta. Their first
child was on the way and Cardinal Mazelli's price was twenty times lower
than Napoleon's offer. "Take the Emperor's commission, Giacomo,"
concluded Simonetta. "You will have other opportunities later to do the
Garden of Eden."

Giacomo knew that Simonetta was lying, but he loved her too much. What
if he never had another chance to prove himself as an artist? What if he
consumed his life making silly decorations and reproducing other
artists' works? He spent the night contemplating his Garden of Eden
drawings and, in the morning, he accepted Napoleon's commission.

The mosaic at the Minoriten Church in Vienna made Giacomo Raffaelli a
rich man. He lived comfortably for another twenty-six years and had five
children with Simonetta.

In our days, the mosaic reproducing Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper can
be still admired in Vienna, although it has lost most of it colours.

Giacomo Raffaelli's drawings of the Garden of Eden were purchased by a
collector in 1838 and, still today, they remain in private hands. Those
who have seen the drawings say that they are astonishingly beautiful.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of eight books about rational living, including "When Everything Fails, Try This" (2009), "Rationality Is the Way to Happiness" (2009), "The Philosophy of Builders: How to Build a Great Future with the Pieces from Your Past" (2010), "The 10 Principles of Rational Living" (2012), "Rational Living, Rational Working: How to Make Winning Moves When Things Are Falling Apart" (2013), "Consistency: The Key to Permanent Stress Relief" (2014), "On Becoming Unbreakable: How Normal People Become Extraordinarily Self-Confident" (2015), and "Thriving in difficult times: Twelve lessons from Ancient Greece to improve your life today" (2016).